Mr. Pickwick
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mr. Pickwick |
| Original title | The Pickwick Papers |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Noel Langley |
| script | Noel Langley |
| production | Noel Langley George Minter |
| music | Antony Hopkins |
| camera | Wilkie Cooper |
| cut | Anne V. Coates |
| occupation | |
| |
Mr. Pickwick is a 1952 British film directed by Noel Langley . James Hayter in the lead role of Samuel Pickwick leads the extensive cast. The film is based on the novel The Pickwickier (1836/37) by Charles Dickens .
action
Rural England, mid-19th century. The eponymous Pickwick Papers are those notes that the old scholar, founder and eternal President of the Pickwick Club makes for true and experience-hungry gentlemen, Samuel Pickwick, on his numerous journeys within the British Kingdom. He collects the written knowledge on the way. He is accompanied by the no less weird club members Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle. All four are called The Pickwickians. In episodic form, this film tells, like the novel, how the gentlemen cope with the individual experiences, no matter how bizarre they may be, with a lot of humor and situational comedy. From a literary point of view, considerable weight falls on the coach stops that are approached.
At the beginning of their travels in a carriage, the eccentric gentlemen get to know Alfred Jingle, who is exposed as the story goes on as a comic impostor with underhand sleight of hand. Again and again the four friends are taken to the manor farm Mr. Wardles in Dingley Dell. Sam Weller, a farmer-savvy Cockney guy, also plays a central role. Although completely different in character, he is taken on his travels by the extremely noble Mr. Pickwick as a loyal servant. His findings from the Pickwickier's travels are sometimes fundamentally different from those of the venerable club members.
One day a misunderstanding arises between Samuel Pickwick and his landlady Mrs. Bardell due to a statement made by Sam. She wants to sue him for breaking her word, but Mr. Pickwick is stubborn. And since he neither intends to pay the compensation demanded by Mrs. Bardell nor wants to pay the windy lawyers of the Dodson & Fogg law firm, the scholar ends up in London's Fleet Prison.
Production notes
The film was made in mid-1952 and premiered on November 14, 1952 at Gaumont Cinema in London's Haymarket. The German premiere took place on November 26, 1954 in the GDR under the title "The Stories of Mr. Pickwick", the German television premiere of Mr. Pickwick was on October 15, 1967.
Bob McNaught took over the production management. The buildings were designed by Fred Pusey , the costumes , which were only nominated for an Oscar in 1956 , were designed by Beatrice Dawson . Composer Antony Hopkins conducted his own film music. Lead actor Hayter received a BAFTA Award for his acting performance.
Reviews
The Movie & Video Guide praised the film as a “tasty, episodic version of the Dickens classic”.
Halliwell's Film Guide, however, found this Dickens adaptation to be "smoothly drafted and loosely structured", but praised the "good humor".
In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Despite formal weaknesses a largely amusing adaptation of the Dickens novel."
The Daily Mirror stated shortly after viewing the film: "As welcome as the morning sun and as British as a cup of tea".
The TV guide reads: "If ever a Dickens novel called for a movie, it was The Pickwick Papers, and this version did a happy, good job."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1014
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 796
- ↑ Mr. Pickwick. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 20, 2020 .
- ↑ Short review in the TV Guide
Web links
- Mr. Pickwick in the Internet Movie Database (English)